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<div><h2 class="title">
<a name="tutorial"></a>Boost.Python Tutorial</h2></div>
<div><div class="authorgroup">
<div class="author"><h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">Joel</span> <span class="surname">de Guzman</span>
</h3></div>
<div class="author"><h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">David</span> <span class="surname">Abrahams</span>
</h3></div>
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<div><p class="copyright">Copyright © 2002-2005 Joel
      de Guzman, David Abrahams</p></div>
<div><div class="legalnotice">
<a name="tutorial.legal"></a><p>
        Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
        file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>
      </p>
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<div class="toc">
<p><b>Table of Contents</b></p>
<dl class="toc">
<dt><span class="section"><a href="index.html#tutorial.quickstart">QuickStart</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/hello.html">Building Hello World</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/exposing.html">Exposing Classes</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/exposing.html#tutorial.exposing.constructors">Constructors</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/exposing.html#tutorial.exposing.class_data_members">Class Data Members</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/exposing.html#tutorial.exposing.class_properties">Class Properties</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/exposing.html#tutorial.exposing.inheritance">Inheritance</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/exposing.html#tutorial.exposing.class_virtual_functions">Class Virtual
      Functions</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/exposing.html#tutorial.exposing.virtual_functions_with_default_i">Virtual
      Functions with Default Implementations</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/exposing.html#tutorial.exposing.class_operators_special_function">Class
      Operators/Special Functions</a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/functions.html">Functions</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/functions.html#tutorial.functions.call_policies">Call Policies</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/functions.html#tutorial.functions.overloading">Overloading</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/functions.html#tutorial.functions.default_arguments">Default Arguments</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/functions.html#tutorial.functions.auto_overloading">Auto-Overloading</a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/object.html">Object Interface</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/object.html#tutorial.object.basic_interface">Basic Interface</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/object.html#tutorial.object.derived_object_types">Derived Object
      types</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/object.html#tutorial.object.extracting_c_objects">Extracting C++
      objects</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/object.html#tutorial.object.enums">Enums</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/object.html#tutorial.object.creating_python_object">Creating <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">python</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">object</span></code>
      from <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">PyObject</span><span class="special">*</span></code></a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/embedding.html">Embedding</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl><dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/embedding.html#tutorial.embedding.using_the_interpreter">Using the interpreter</a></span></dt></dl></dd>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/iterators.html">Iterators</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/exception.html">Exception Translation</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/techniques.html">General Techniques</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/techniques.html#tutorial.techniques.creating_packages">Creating Packages</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/techniques.html#tutorial.techniques.extending_wrapped_objects_in_pyt">Extending
      Wrapped Objects in Python</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="tutorial/techniques.html#tutorial.techniques.reducing_compiling_time">Reducing
      Compiling Time</a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="tutorial.quickstart"></a><a class="link" href="index.html#tutorial.quickstart" title="QuickStart">QuickStart</a>
</h2></div></div></div>
<p>
      The Boost Python Library is a framework for interfacing Python and C++. It
      allows you to quickly and seamlessly expose C++ classes functions and objects
      to Python, and vice-versa, using no special tools -- just your C++ compiler.
      It is designed to wrap C++ interfaces non-intrusively, so that you should not
      have to change the C++ code at all in order to wrap it, making Boost.Python
      ideal for exposing 3rd-party libraries to Python. The library's use of advanced
      metaprogramming techniques simplifies its syntax for users, so that wrapping
      code takes on the look of a kind of declarative interface definition language
      (IDL).
    </p>
<h3>
<a name="tutorial.quickstart.h0"></a>
      <span class="phrase"><a name="tutorial.quickstart.hello_world"></a></span><a class="link" href="index.html#tutorial.quickstart.hello_world">Hello
      World</a>
    </h3>
<p>
      Following C/C++ tradition, let's start with the "hello, world". A
      C++ Function:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">char</span> <span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">greet</span><span class="special">()</span>
<span class="special">{</span>
   <span class="keyword">return</span> <span class="string">"hello, world"</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="special">}</span>
</pre>
<p>
      can be exposed to Python by writing a Boost.Python wrapper:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="preprocessor">#include</span> <span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">python</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">hpp</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>

<span class="identifier">BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">hello_ext</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="special">{</span>
    <span class="keyword">using</span> <span class="keyword">namespace</span> <span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">python</span><span class="special">;</span>
    <span class="identifier">def</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="string">"greet"</span><span class="special">,</span> <span class="identifier">greet</span><span class="special">);</span>
<span class="special">}</span>
</pre>
<p>
      That's it. We're done. We can now build this as a shared library. The resulting
      DLL is now visible to Python. Here's a sample Python session:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">&gt;&gt;&gt;</span> <span class="keyword">import</span> <span class="identifier">hello_ext</span>
<span class="special">&gt;&gt;&gt;</span> <span class="keyword">print</span> <span class="identifier">hello_ext</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">greet</span><span class="special">()</span>
<span class="identifier">hello</span><span class="special">,</span> <span class="identifier">world</span>
</pre>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
        <span class="emphasis"><em><span class="bold"><strong>Next stop... Building your Hello World module
        from start to finish...</strong></span></em></span>
      </p></blockquote></div>
</div>
</div>
<table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr>
<td align="left"><p><small>Last revised: April 06, 2022 at 21:05:17 GMT</small></p></td>
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